Carbon tax to cut Penrice’s profit

Penrice Soda has added to the industry clamour against the federal government’s carbon tax, claiming it will damage the competitiveness of Australian companies and threaten jobs, without benefiting the environment.

Penrice has calculated that its net profit will be cut by about $6 million if it receives no assistance to compensate it for the increased cost of the carbon plan. But at the same time, the company said it expects full compensation, reducing the impact on profit to $500,000.

“No detail has been provided regarding assistance, however Penrice expects that it would receive the full assistance notionally being offered to emissions intensive trade exposed (EITE) entities," the company said on Thursday.

“Penrice is recognised by the Australian government as an EITE entity under its renewable energy target legislation. At the full assistance rate of 94.5 per cent, the impact on net profit after tax would be $0.5M per annum."

Penrice chief executive
Guy Roberts
described the timing of the proposed tax as “unfortunate, given the unprecedented 30 per cent appreciation of the Australian dollar in the last 12 months, which has reduced Penrice’s export revenues by a similar amount".